GB No. 3(22)/96
As a regular reader of ZB, I conclude that many of the authors, who publish their articles there, search for 'ecological plots' mainly around them - everywhere and at any time. And they are right, because the word 'ecology', or the prefix 'eco-', to be precise, originates from the Greek word oikos, which means home, household.
It can be the neighborhood, the place where we live or the whole world, which has become smaller due to man's curiosity. It seems that there are no places untouched by man.
The reason I started with 'the roots' was that I had listened to JORGI's cassette Gędźbowa knieja - Wood of Music, which is worth meditating on in long, winter evenings.
When something moves or affects us, it must have some value. The value of the music from Gędźbowa Knieja are its roots, which are talked about too silently in the world which imposes universal standards on people.
It is true that all their lives people search for their self through traveling, reading books, studying various philosophies and religions, getting to know new people. The only small mistake in this continuous onward movement could be omitted and could make it a bit easier to understand the world. People do not look back, that is the mistake.
JORGI suggests a sort of musical journey into the past, which is both distant and near,
probably dark and mysterious, yet familiar and without fear. This musical time machine
leads us to Slavic roots - to OUR roots. It is worthwhile to believe that a part of the
world of the first Slavic tribes has survived somewhere in our genes. Their spirit has
remained only in trees. Playing wooden pipes we find our soul, shaped throughout
centuries.
That world, created by panpipes, the guitar and voice, will frighten us a bit with Szuwarki (water nymphs) from bogs and swamps and Straszki (ghosts of old trees). They will accompany us on the search for the herb nasizrak in deep forest. Piesn Wieczorna, a Slavic meditation motif, will attend us when we start to contemplate the greenness of the forest. That will be a true encounter with the powerful spirit of OUR land.
A folk tune from Kołomyjka, Kuku Oberek from Domaniewice or Krzesany from Podhale are all a turn for Polish folk music, which, enhanced with more modern sound by Rychliccy brothers (after all, the sound of guitar and flute is closer for us than basetla, cymbaly or gesle), should be as attractive, or even more attractive for us than the rhythm of African drums, the music of South America or Indian mantras.
Listening to JORGI band, we can hear not only the wildwood from the title track - there are also bogs and swamps, forest brooks, mountains and the universe (Wielki Wóz). The last track on the cassette is Pieśń Ziemi(The Earth's Song) - a short, polyphonic tribute to the Creation.
I think that the power of this music consists in its grasp of the mystery of existing in the world, which we live in and grow out of but which is, in some wonderful way, still unexplainable for us. We feel free but we are neither the most important creatures nor the owners of this world. We are an inseparable and, I hope, rational part of it.
Małgorzata Gwóźdź
reprinted from Zielone Brygady Nov. '94
translated by Jacek Iwański